Surbiton Station
by Nina-Satine
Summary: The summer before sixth year Harry spends most days riding trains. Every visit with Sarah is unexpected, this one is no different.


To be read after Magnolia Park.

There maybe mistakes in this chapter as there tends to be in all of them.

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Harry sat waiting for the train. He knew he shouldn't have been running around by himself, but all he could think was maybe he would be making his godfather proud by running off on his own. Harry liked trains well enough; figured there was always the right amount of people around, and didn't worry too much about missing a train, as there would always be another one soon enough.

Besides the rides always seemed to calm him; making him feel just a bit normal, and keep his mind off things. Harry sat, staring blankly at a random spot on the ground. His mind racing with random incoherent thoughts, when he heard his name being called. He looked up and saw on the other side of the platform a familiar face, waving and smiling at him. It wasn't till the smile faltered, her fingers slowly curled back onto her palm, and her hand started to lower that Harry realized that he was just looking at her with an expressionless face. Before Harry knew what he was doing he jumped up to his feet and returned a tentative wave. The action seemed to reassure the young woman. Her smiled returned and she made a quick gesture for him to stay where he was.

Harry briefly wondered just how much of a coincidence their meetings were, and for a fleeting moment he wondered if she was dangerous. The thought left just as quickly as it had entered his mind; it was silly to think that Voldemort had turned a muggle girl to the dark side. Harry reassured himself with the thought that he had only seen Sarah a couple of times now, and Voldemort hadn't returned when he first met her. It would be highly unlikely that she was a spy for the dark Lord, but he would remain on guard.

Harry waited patiently for Sarah to approach, he expected her to stop a few feet in front of him, and start a conversation. He had not expected Sarah to surpass those few steps, wrap her arms around him, letting both her hands rest between his shoulder blades. She pressed the side of her face against his shoulder; her hair tickled his neck. Her hug engulfed him leaving no space between them.

Harry stood dumbfounded for a moment, not knowing what to do with his hands or arms. He quickly decided to appropriately place them exactly in the middle of her back, not too high and not too low. The moment he began to return the hug he felt Sarah grin into his shoulder and tighten her hold on him. Harry tried to place whose her hug reminded him of. It was unlike Hermione's, whose hugs always felt comforting; as though she was trying to hold him together, making sure he was all in one piece. Sirius had always given a firm but also relaxed sort of hug. No, Sarah's hug reminded him of the sort he would received from Mrs. Weasley, less motherly of course, but the action was comforting he felt himself relax in her embrace. Sarah's hug was the kind you never knew you needed, her hug made it seem like the whole world had stopped, and that no matter what wrong had happened, was happening, or would happen, in the end everything would turn out just fine. Harry rested a cheek on the top of her head, and gave her a slight squeeze. Everything started again as they pulled away. Harry dropped his arms and Sarah held Harry at his wrists as she stepped back with a smile on her face.

"It's good to see you, and sorry if that hug was too much, you just looked like you could use it." Sarah smiled, she slowly released her hold of him, their arms falling to their sides.

"Thank you for that actually, it felt good, very comforting." He finished running a hand through his hair, making it stand at odd angles. He finally noticed how flustered and awkward he was feeling about the situation. He looked around before returning his gaze to her. "What brings you here?"

"Obligation." Sarah leaned close to him and half whispered. "I always make rounds whenever I'm visiting. I'm done now." Silence fell over the two for a moment before Sarah asked. "How about you? What brings you here?"

"I, just, like riding trains." He stated lamely; Sarah beamed at him.

"Want some company? I was going to head home, but that would be kinda boring." Harry remembered how Sarah ran off the last time they meet. He remembered being a little hurt at her abrupt departure, but seeing her standing in front of him reminded him of how much he missed his friend. He nodded not trusting himself to speak.

Harry would look towards Sarah from time to time, each time her eyes caught his she would give him a reassuring smile. There was much that needed to be said, but for a time being they waited silently for the train. Once boarded he noticed there were few people on the train all scattered about, quiet conversations buzzed around the silent pair as the scenery changed outside the window. Harry kept his focus on a spot on the floor by his feet.

Harry noticed the slight buzzing sound when Sarah linked her arm in his. He noticed the lights in the train seemed to flicker for a moment when Sarah leaned against him. He looked around at the passengers who seemed oblivious to anything that may have seemed out of the ordinary. Harry wondered if perhaps he was just imagining the buzzing and the flickering, but when Sarah entwined her fingers with his he knew it was not just a trick of his mind. There was a charge around him, he could feel the static prickling against his skin and his fingers itched to hold his wand. He knew it was magic, but it felt different from what he was used to, and he knew there was no evil or hated in the magic around him.

The buzzing became a high pitched whine in his ear, the lights were dimming and brightening in quick succession, the others in the cart continued on without a notice. Everything else, besides the sound of the train on the tracks and whine, seemed muted. Harry turned his head towards Sarah who was looking at him. Her own face showed an array of emotions such as worry, fear, hesitation, before settling on determination. The noises around him seemed deafening, as though whatever it was was weeping into the crevasses of the train in the for of dark fog that was trying to make its way to them. Harry couldn't take his eyes away from Sarah, her lips parted before closing; the look in her eyes seemed to be that she was debating with herself. Right before everything seemed too be engulfed in the fog Sarah seemed to get a grip on her nerves.

"I have magic." Sarah spoke quietly. For a moment Harry just looked at her. She gripped his hand a little tighter, and Harry could feel the nervousness begin to come off Sarah in waves. Everything had seemed to suspend in time, as though holding its breath, all the noises stopped, waiting for a response.

"Me too." As he spoke and everything seemed to shift back into gear. The fog dissipated, the high pitched whine was replaced with the white noise of casual conversations on the train. Sarah looked away from him and leaned her head against his shoulder, she seemed relieved.

"How did you get your magic?" Sarah asked. Harry found the question silly, before he wondered if things were done differently in America.

"I was born with it. You?" Harry had never considered the possibility that there could be more than one way to gain magic.

"I accidentally challenged a Fae king and won. Actually, I didn't even know I would win powers till after the fact, so there's not much I can do about it now." Sarah kept her eyes on their locked hands as she spoke.

"Well, what did you think you were going to win?" Harry asked not looking away from her.

"My brother back." Sarah meet his gaze. Harry could see the vulnerability in her eyes, as well as the fact that what she had just shared was not something that she was proud of. He gave her hand a slight squeeze to reassure her that he would not criticize anything she would tell him. She smiled and rested her head back against his shoulder. For the rest of the ride Sarah recounted her adventure through the Labyrinth, an adventure that had happened a few weeks before their last meeting. The owl that had perched itself nearby when they had last seen each other was the King who was trying to inform Sarah about her powers.

"I try to keep my distance from him. He throws tantrums like you'd never believe." Sarah told him that she kept in contact with her friends from the Labyrinth, even if they weren't human, they were the only others that she could speak to about magic. They were also the messengers since she was not allowing the King to have any sort of contact with her. Harry told Sarah that although strange things happened to him, he didn't actually find out about magic until his 11th birthday. "I'm glad I have someone I can talk to about it now, even if it isn't exactly the same." Sarah said after hearing that their magic had differences. Harry relied mostly on his wand and words to produce magic. Sarah said that even though she was still working on hers it was based more on willpower, and the fact that her magic came from the Labyrinth itself, something she still didn't quite understand.

Harry didn't divulge much else besides the fact that he was a wizard who was going to school to learn what he needed to. Sarah was more open with her experience and even shared that she was almost certain that the Fae King may have something in store for her, but for the time being, until she allowed it, he was not allowed to contact with her. "The perks of being a champion I guess, of course it doesn't stop him from trying." She said pointing out that he visits frequently in his barn owl form to screech at her from time to time.

"Would you mind if we can exchange letters?" Harry asked sometime later as they stood on the stations platform when it was time for them to say their goodbyes.

"As long as you don't send me barn owl." Sarah replied teasingly with a smile, having been informed, during their conversations, about the most popular method of communication in the Wizarding world.

"Of course not, I'll send you Hedwig she's my Snowy owl. If not her I might send my mate Ron's owl Pig, which is short for Pigwidgeon, he's a scops owl, and if for whatever reason I need to send a different owl I will be sure it's any sort other than a barn owl. I might send some owl treats so you have them, just be sure there's a spot nearby so they could rest a bit." Sarah continued to smile at him.

"As someone who has an owl that follows her around, I am sure I can arrange something to accommodate your owls. But there is a very nice tree outside my window that I am sure they will be quite happy with." Harry had his hands in his front pockets, he looked at the ground not knowing what to do with himself. "I really should be going now," Sarah continued knowing that she needed to get back to her mother. "I'm glad we got to see each other again Harry Potter, and I look forward to exchanging letters with you."

Harry looked up to respond to her. In the moment he did, Sarah had an arm around him pulling him into a quick hug, before he could remove his hands from his pockets to return the hug Sarah was already pulling away from him. She placed her hands on his shoulders before she pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth leaving a small kiss before she took a few steps back. "I'll see you later Harry!" She said waving to him as she turned taking off with a bounce in her step. Harry watched her leave with wide eyes, one hand had slowly lifted to touch the corner of his lip where she had kissed him, Sarah had been so nonchalant about the action that he wondered if perhaps he was the one overreacting. It wasn't till his fingers grazed his lip that he realized that he was smiling, he ran his hand through his hair, he decided that he wouldn't overthink anything for the time being, instead he would just enjoy one last train ride before heading home, he would think about what he was going to write in his first letter to her.

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A/N: Welcome back everyone! I have had this on my mind for many months, maybe even longer, just couldn't figure out quite how to put it all into words, but here it is and done. I had planned on uploading this yesterday but decided to give it another revision and if I read it over again I am sure I will add or change a few things and that is a never ending process, so here this is.

I was going to jump right into the last part of the "Hogwarts Saga" from where the last chapter ended off, but decided to go a slight different route. No worries though it will be the last chapter for some time, and Jareth will make his anticipated entrance.

I also have an idea for a stand alone piece which will be much darker, so I'm kind of excited about that.

This meeting takes place before Half-Blood Prince, and movie wise, before Dumbledore goes to retrive Harry. They now have a common secret, and a new person to confide in. I'm not sure where this string of chapters will lead with Sarah and Harry, but I am looking forward to finding out.

Thank you all for everything, and Happy Readings.


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